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Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Stangl Gassing Testimony, 12th September 1947

Author: Jonathan Harrison

In 1999, Peter Schwarz published this excellent article concerning Hartheim 'euthanasia' physician Georg Renno (click here for Google translation). Schwarz examined the interrogation of Renno by LG Frankfurt in February 1965 and found that Renno changed his denial defence strategy to one that admitted to involvement in gassings after being shown the testimony given by Stangl to LG Linz on 12/9/47. This is highly significant in light of Stangl's role in Aktion Reinhardt as commander of Sobibor and Treblinka.
In the section headed "Rennos Verteidigungsstrategie [Renno's Defence Strategy]", Schwarz found that, in his 1961 interview by the Attorney General, Renno had claimed that "Ein Arzt war an der geschilderten Prozedur nicht beteiligt [A physician was not involved in the described procedure]." The confrontation with Stangl's 1947 testimony occurred in February 1965:

Stangl had directly contradicted Renno as to the requirement that a physician be present at a gassing. Renno thus began to make admissions, such as how he advised the 'senior stoker' [Oberbrenner] 'Valasta' how to ensure that there were sufficent gassing levels in the chamber to kill all the victims. This was another crucial admission in relation to Aktion Reinhardt because 'Valasta' was actually Josef Vallaster, who was killed in the Sobibor revolt of 14th October, 1943.

Furthermore, Stangl, Wirth and Vallaster are not the only personnel connections between Hartheim and Sobibor. I have summarized in this table the SS trial defendants who served at both sites. Another account is given by Kepplinger on page 17 of this paper.

Finally, it should be noted that, although he avoided imprisonment on health grounds (two strokes in the early 1970's), Renno was interviewed by Kohl for this book. Schwarz summarizes a key exchange: